How much to refurb our shower cubicle?

my folks just had this done, albeit to a reasonably fancy finish; shower board, nice dual head shower, new tray/plinth, new door..

six grand...

DrP

How much to refurb our shower cubicle?

As ever, a lot more than you first think.

We looked at getting our modest 2mx2.5m bathroom redone last year. We looked at 'like for like' replacement, so no moving of pipes, basic white tiles, one step up from 'budget' on taps and fittings, lino floor, plastic ceiling but it would need new plasterboard and floorboards. All quotes came in at £10k+ which seemed ridiculous. We still have our old bathroom.

reptile

How big, and what sort of lighting/heating are you planning for it?

Our shower has been leaking on-off for years. 

Ours leaked pretty badly. The damage to the timbers in the walls and floor were quite shocking. You may need to factor this in too.

Either way, it's not a cheap undertaking. Also be wary of cheap and even "reasonable" quotes. We took a very reasonable quote for our shower. Massively regret that.

6 grand?! You could get a whole bathroom built for that lol

I dont think £6k is that unrealistic, in fact I could see it being a lot more. It sounds like its a major job ie full strip back to bear walls

Of course it depends on the quality of stuff you want to put in.

I would be a little concerned about the water in the floor to be honest. If its got through the tiles it may well have got to the joists too.

We had a shower professionally installed, within 3 years the whole lot had to be ripped out. Water had leaked through the travertine tiles and all the floor boards and joists were knackered, just in 3 years. They soaked up all the water and spread it out, no signs of leaks in the room below

Thanks, and gives me a ballpark. We had some building work done 20yrs ago, chose the cheapest and there was v good reason why they were cheap!

Assume Checkatrade ratings are a good start point.

6 grand?! You could get a whole bathroom built for that lol

We looked at getting our modest 2mx2.5m bathroom redone last year. We looked at ‘like for like’ replacement, so no moving of pipes, basic white tiles, one step up from ‘budget’ on taps and fittings, lino floor, plastic ceiling but it would need new plasterboard and floorboards. All quotes came in at £10k+ which seemed ridiculous. We still have our old bathroom.

LOL!

DrP

Reptiles....

Bears......

What other exotic pets to you guys keep in?

Assume Checkatrade ratings are a good start point.

I wouldn't trust them at all.

Personal recommendations are much better.

checkatrade reviews will often be written immediately after a job so will be more based on feels and finish than longevity, which is what you need for a shower install.

Trades are 350 a day, its a bigger job than most folk would think.

I would say 4 days + £1000 for tiles boards tray etc

Should be £2500 .... but it wont be

So if, for example, we got a 'reasonable' quote, 9+ on e.g. 100 Checkatrade reviews, but the business isn't VAT registered, would that be a worry?

Just would guess a busy bathroom fitter, would turnover more than £80k when incl materials, running a van, etc?

plastic ceiling but it would need new plasterboard and floorboards. All quotes came in at £10k+ which seemed ridiculous. We still have our old bathroom.

New plasterboard and floorboards suggests a complete strip back to bare walls and floor (ie it's knackered!) so I'm not surprised at £10k.

Yeah, the guy who did my upstairs bathroom gave me two quotes, one assuming that the original tanking was still good, and just needed replacing, another assuming it wasn't and would need floor/wall works etc. The second quote was £5.5k (well 60000 sek) more.

Luckily the only place it had failed, a 20cm strip of floor was coming up anyway to have the waste pipes moved.

(Downstairs bathroom it had failed, but luckily only up against the concrete floor and wall, so it was only a few hundred quid extra to fix. And a couple of weeks of electricity for a dehumidifier.)

Already mentioned, but look at shower wall panels rather than tiling. Much less likely to leak and needs less prep. I did ours and was about £700 for materials (walls, tray, door, misc) and took 2-3 days or so.

We started out on this path a few years ago, needed an en-suite bathroom shower refitted.

Couldn't find a trade who wanted to do it so decided to make it a bigger project and move rooms around a bit with the theory being that, as it is a hassle, we might as well get a few things done at once. We then decided to convert garage, then extend increasing house size by another 50%, then refurb nearly all of the old bit of house with new windows, heating, re-wire, decoration, changed layouts, new carpets etc etc.

So, in our case, a new shower tray ended up costing around £260k.

Assume Checkatrade ratings are a good start point.

Maybe... but ONLY a start point. I've been bitten by a shockingly bad builder (actually a bathroom fitter!) with good ratings. As always, it needs some common sense and research.

Checkatrade ratings can be ok but don't just look at the rating, read reviews see if they actually mean anything sensible & relevant (maybe they're all for building patios or replacing wobbly doorknobs), also look at how long the builder's been going for, eg if it's a 30 year old family business with their own website and ratings/reviews in other places (eg Google) then I'd be more inclined to trust them than someone who only exists on Checkatrade for the last 4 years. This of course may be unfair in reality but it's about the best you can do when researching online.

IME if you can find enough info online then this can be better than word of mouth, which tends to be just based on a couple of people's experience unless you know loads of people who've used them.

Also this:

checkatrade reviews will often be written immediately after a job so will be more based on feels and finish than longevity, which is what you need for a shower install.

"Joe Bloggs the builder was really friendly and tidied up nicely" is utterly meaningless.

Also also: don't take the cheapest! Especially if they're considerably cheaper. Although bear in mind that this absolutely does not mean that the most expensive will be the best.

Also also also: MyBuilder is another place to look, similar to Checkatrade.

New plasterboard and floorboards suggests a complete strip back to bare walls and floor (ie it’s knackered!) so I’m not surprised at £10k.

Having had the ceiling down two years ago, the floor and wall woodwork is all good. So yes, new plasterboard and tiles throughout, but no stud walls or floor needing repairing.

For me the statement "Our shower has been leaking on-off for years" will be key to the actual cost.

Until the old one is pulled out, neither you nor the Tradesman will really know what actually needs to be done.

We had our bathroom completed gutted last year, spent +£10k but it was stripped back including removal of all the plasterboards.

Various issues were identified before, and during - I just asked the guys to tell us immediately of anything that was going to be an 'extra' cost.  About £500 more than the quote, but happy with the rational, enough that we got them back 3 months later and they gutted the ensuite too.  Size of the room had little impact on spend.

We just got a 'rough' quote for our bathroom of around 6K for a new bath, shower, sink and loo, plus the floor and tiling.

Got my bathroom taken back to brick and re-done in full last year for about £3.5k all in.

Hired the trades individually and just did a bit of prep, clearance & decorating (including screed floor) with my dad.

That was shower-over-bath, but just pointing out there's often a big mark-up for getting one company to do the lot.

If you have a second bathroom, take 2 weeks off work and do it yourself.  It is not hard.

Or if you have access to another bathroom, do the strip out and disposal yourself, and leave just the refit to a professional.  That way its clear whether joists etc.. are knackered and they aren't just pricing the risk the job could be bigger into the job.  Though, I'd expect them to charge extra if they did discover the flooring was completely knackered.

My approach to quotes these days, is think of the number I reckon it should cost, add a zero and double it.

You forgot to add 50% @dt78

Don't do what I assume the previous occupier of my house did and find the cheapest handyman and haggle them down.

A decade ago I was in the shower and MrsMcF burst in saying it was leaking into the kitchen (I was also replacing) cue bringing the bathroom renovation forward a few years.

The toilet was also perched on offcuts of flooring too.

Get someone decent

We got a new 2x2m bathroom.  Complete strip back to joists (which were OK.)

We bought the bits and pieces - total around £5o00. One man and his son did the entire strip out and refit. New flooring, ceiling, LED lights, full wall tiling. Labour was around £1600.

We could have saved quite a bit by going for more basic units and cheaper tiles but as it hadn't been done for over 20 years we picked what we wanted rather than worrying too much about price.

I'm guessing your issue was having limestone tiles and not resealing them frequently enough so the water has got through and rotted the wood behind.

Cost wise, I would expect £6k plus to strip all the way back and make good. You want everything hidden done properly as once it's hidden, it's hidden. Might be worth tanking etc. to prevent any leaks happening in the future etc

Price up all the fittings you want from somewhere like Victorian Plumbing. Then take that off the £6k and work out how much they're charging per hour. That will tell you if it's reasonable.

I had a brickie quote me £11k to build a single skin 8m x 1.3m wall. Cost of bricks was around £600 per 500. Sand & cement another £150. 12 hours to build the wall. £133/hr. I blame these tiktok numpties that reckon they're getting paid £5 per brick laid. I don't begrudge anyone making a living, but he got told exactly where to go.

oldmanmtb2 is right. £2500 is what it should cost assuming no surprises when the bathroom's stripped back.

I’ve two mates who are bathroom fitters.  The general rule of thumb for the whole lot iseems to be to start at £5k and then go up from there depending on the quality of materials, fixtures and fittings used.

I’ve had UPVC bathroom panels go bad before. I wouldn’t use them again.

I’ve had UPVC bathroom panels go bad before. I wouldn’t use them again.

Interesting.  Bathroom company I'll be using have refused to fit those which was disappointing.  Back to grotty grout it is.

I AM a Bathroom fitter.  my guess is 4 days of labour   assuming no damage to the subfloor.  I would want to remove the enclosure, shower and tray, remove the tiles and wall boards to assess the scope of any damage and then reboard using Wedi board or similar, fit tray and seal, then retile and refit shower and fit new enclosure.

For that I’d want £1500+ vat for labour and rubbish removal plus materials.  Decent door is £400, tiles £200, fixing materials and backerboard £300 and to make sure ‘grotty grout’ isn’t  a thing, I’d specify epoxy grout at £50.  So approx £3k all in.

I’ve two mates who are bathroom fitters.  The general rule of thumb for the whole lot seems to be to start at £5k

I can’t do much for under £8k if half decent stuff is required.  Half of that is labour, sundries and VAT.

@cinnamon_girl how about glass wall panels? I don't know how much they cost but they have no horrible grout lines and are really easy to keep clean. In ours the only joints are the corner and where they meet the floor.

@nixie - glass would make me very nervous although no grout very much appeals!

@cinnamon_girl yep, printed surface deteriorated even with the mildest of cleaning fluids (ecover multi surface spray: it’s essentially very dilute vinegar).  You could also see it was UPVC when direct lighting hit it, exposing the extrusions under the surface. This got worse as it aged. We also got pink and black mould growing in the panel joins that you really can’t clean without risking damage to the panels.

It was warm though and did cover up 1930s plasterwork really well, but overall it made the room feel like an Ibis budget hotel or tired North Sea ferry cabin bathroom.

The only wall panels I’d fit are Nuance or Mermaid but they’re ££££’s.   We’ve done glass, but they’re a total pain as the holes for the enclosure and valves etc. all have to be drilled in advance by the manufacturer, as they’re toughened glass.  The colour is applied to the reverse side and you have to be soooo careful fitting them, as any small nick or scratch means they’re scrap.

get it tiled and use epoxy grout, it’s inert and stuff can’t grow on it.

We had Wickes do our bathrooms. Never again. Awful experience. Took over a year and 2 refits after the initial installation was faulty. The second fitter was OK, but actual contact and action from Wickes has been truly shocking. We still have a skip bag of waste sitting in the front garden to be collected.

Our were Mermaid Elite panels. Great, but they need to be fitted correctly.

I’ve had UPVC bathroom panels go bad before. I wouldn’t use them again.

The uPVC ones are the cheapest option. The better ones are on a more sturdy substrate and likely a thicker top surface. Ours are on waterproof MDF and they've been great for many years now. Would happily fit again.

I doubt I'll ever put tiles in now

The good panels can be a great option, as they can remove a skill level that’s required for good tile finish, however, they’re only as good as the install.

Walls should still be prepped and tanked behind them, the weak point of almost all enclosures are the joints and holes drilled through them.  The should all be sealed as things get fitted, no matter how waterproof your top layer, it’s no good if water’s getting through the shower valve hole.  They also need scribing in and sealing properly on the joints.

I would say around 80% of my work is generated by a poor previous shower install, usually the tray or the door isn’t fitted or sealed correctly leading to leaks that get worse over time, also water ingress through the valve hole or shower pipe holes that haven’t been correctly sealed.  Waterproof substrate is a non-negotiable on my jobs.

Waterproof substrate is a non-negotiable on my jobs.

Tanking/waterproof substrate is a legal requirement here, has been for 30+ years.

Unfortunately the UK isn’t so enlightened and it’s seen as an optional extra to some, and not specified at all for others.  The jobs I lose due to competing quotes, most often don’t have any consideration for quality of materials or waterproof prep.

“Having had the ceiling down two years ago, the floor and wall woodwork is all good. So yes, new plasterboard and tiles throughout, but no stud walls or floor needing repairing.”

Until you look at the mess once the tiles are off, could need reboarding and with a decent backer like cement board or tile backer board (wedi or similar) it’s 6k for a basic rental type bathroom here in London like the one I just had done for my flat I’m selling. Our bathroom was £14k but would have been £19k if I hadn’t done a lot of the sourcing and ripping out plus some of the fiddly tedious work. it does have some custom cabinets/vanity units imported from europe though and terrazzo tiles (not the cheap printed ones), cross water taps etc and a full reboard.

can’t see you job being less than £3.5k depending on what you find after ripping out.

@hot_fiat very surprised that your wall panels were so fragile, I assumed that being synthetic they'd be able to withstand any old cleaning product.  As to mould in the joins, ugh!

@Blazin-saddles thanks for the tip of using epoxy grout and shall pass that onto the bathroom company.  Also interesting to read your comments re wall panels.

Have a sloping wall in my bathroom meaning the shower enclosure has to be made to measure and no measuring can take place until after shower tray and tiles are fitted.  Then there's a couple of weeks wait for the actual enclosure to be made.